Death Is No Excuse

<p><em>There’s a little bit of Amazon creeping into many workplaces today<br><br><strong>By Mala Bhargava</strong></em><br><br>By now everyone will have read The New York Times’ article “Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace,” in which it was said that even death was no excuse to do less than your best at Amazon.<br><br>The long article painted a grim picture of a workplace where the pursuit of excellence and innovation rode roughshod over the human side of people who worked there. Employees who had to cut back on working late, for example, due to cancer or a dying parent or a miscarriage were given low performance ratings and edged out. People were ripped apart in public when presenting ideas, shamed to the point of tears, and left to either rise above their discomfort or leave.<br><br>The article painted Amazon to be workplace from hell with a truly brutal number-driven culture — and it shocked readers deeply.<br><br>Jeff Bezos, who is said to be the fifth richest man in the world, reacted to the piece the next day and said he didn’t recognise the Amazon described there as the Amazon he knew and sent off a memo to employees to report any abusive behaviour they encountered.<br><br>On social media, it was passed around with some degree of horror. Look what happens at Amazon. While it may or may not be exaggerated, I think it shouldn’t altogether surprise us. There’s a little bit of Amazon creeping into many modern workplaces today. As work becomes more digitised and measurable, many companies have begun a relentless demand for “numbers” from their “resources,” gradually creating workers who bring their bodies to work and leave their hearts behind.<br><br>If they can’t take it, a fresh crop of the educated unemployed is waiting in the wings.<br><br>Ironically, the same day the article came out, I had a friend almost in tears as she prepared to toil late into the night, leaving a sick daughter at home, only to find a pair of security guards appear at her desk demanding to know why she was eating a snack at her desk. The office had cameras trained on every desk and grabbing a bite quickly brought on the Gestapo.<br><br>The New York Times article described how Amazon didn’t really care if employees quit after a stint at the company. The idea was not to win their loyalty and keep them on for years. The idea was to sift them out and replace them with fresh blood.<br><br>This too is a familiar scenario in corporate offices today, where life is made increasingly difficult for an employee until there’s little option but to take one’s misery out of the organisation.<br><br>It’s interesting that Jeff Bezos thinks of the article as being made up of half truths. Even at half strength, the description is chilling. &nbsp;<br><br>(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 07-09-2015)</p>